71 dogs taken from Savannah house need new homes

Cheri Sheridan clutches a dog she plans to foster Monday afternoon at the Savannah-Chatham Animal Control shelter. The dog is one of 71 taken by police from a small, one-story house on East 33rd Street Sunday.

Dash Coleman/Savannah Morning NewsSavannah-Chatham Animal Control Shelter supervisor Jodi Lewis Monday afternoon carries two of 71 dogs taken by police from a houe on East 33rd Street Sunday to a truck bound for Maranatha Farm in Ridgeland, S.C.

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“We will fix you up,” Cheri Sheridan cooed to the small, freshly bathed dog nestled on her shoulder Monday afternoon at the Savannah-Chatham Animal Control shelter.

Sheridan had arrived at the shelter just after its doors opened to the public at 1 p.m. with a mission — to foster one or two of the 71 dogs taken by police from a small, messy East 33rd Street home on Sunday.

“What’s amazing is how quickly they come around,” Sheridan said. “By Friday, this one will be trotting around and wagging its tail.”

Sure enough, within a few minutes the pup was wagging its tail, cradled in Sheridan’s arms. Almost as soon as the dogs had been transported to Animal Control Sunday night, Diane Abolt with Friends of Animal Control Team Savannah, or FACTS, was ready to help.

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“I’ll tell you something,” said Lt. Brenda Boulware of Animal Control. “We never could have gotten through this without FACTS coordinating with all the different rescues.”

By the time those looking to adopt animals were allowed in the shelter Monday afternoon, FACTS and other area animal-rescue groups had taken most of the dogs for foster care.

Brooke Fisher of Brooke’s Haven Animal Rescue in Bluffton, S.C., was getting ready to head out with a van chock-full of dogs when she said that in her 11 years helping animals, she’d never taken so many at once. “I usually bring back four of five — never 16,” she said.

Abolt herself took 14 of the dogs, including a mother and four nursing puppies.

“Thank goodness we had two mothers,” she said. “One had milk and one didn’t.”

Police at the scene Sunday said the dogs appeared to have enough food, and rescue workers at the shelter Monday agreed the dogs looked relatively healthy, considering their living situation. Descriptions of the dogs’ behavior, however, echoed what several residents of the area near the home said Sunday — that they heard barking sometimes, but never saw them outside.

“Most of these dogs have never been outside, so they’re petrified,” Abolt said. “They just freeze to the ground. They don’t know what to do — they’ve never touched grass.”

It took police more than four hours to remove the dogs from 318 E. 33rd St. Sunday and transport them to Animal Control. Officers had to pile clothing, broken furniture and storage bins in front of the residence in order to secure the animals, many of which were hiding amid clutter in the home, including within the walls, police at the scene said. In one room of the house, animal waste was piled more than a foot thick.

Savannah-Chatham police Lt. John Best, a man with more than 30 years experience in law enforcement, was one of the officers removing dogs from the house Sunday.

“I’ve never seen anything that bad condition-wise, and I’ve never seen so many dogs in one house,” Best said Monday.

Even after four hours and 69 dogs, there was still work to be done. Police were called back to the house a few hours later to recover two more dogs, Boulware said.

Charges are pending against the man who formerly owned the dogs, 43-year-old Daniel Golden. Savannah-Chatham police spokesman Julian Miller would not comment Monday evening on what types of charges are being discussed.

Boulware said Golden is cooperating with investigators.

“The issue here is that the owner was very cooperative and released the dogs to us voluntarily,” Boulware said. “... The owner said that the dog situation in his house was just something that ‘got out of hand.’”

The house from which the dogs were taken was condemned Monday after it was discovered parts of the floor were caving in and because of the animal waste “all over the house,” said city Property Maintenance Department administrator Linwood Brown.

“I don’t think he actually knew that he was doing something wrong as far as having all the dogs in the house,” Brown said.

The tenant and owner will be summoned to recorder’s court to determine what will be done with the property, Brown said.

Reached by phone Monday afternoon, Ganell Butler identified herself as the property’s owner, but said she did not know anything about the dogs. She said her grandson, James Butler III, started handling the rental property about one year ago following the death of her son. James Butler could not be reached for comment.

How to help

Only 13 of the 71 dogs were still at the shelter when it closed Monday evening, said shelter supervisor Jodi Lewis. The Savannah-Chatham Animal Control shelter, located at 7211 Sallie Mood Drive, is open for public visitation of the animals from 1 p.m. to 4:45 p.m. everyday.

The following organizations took dogs from the shelter Monday for foster care. Contact them to inquire about adoption.

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The person with the dogs clearly needs a psychiatric evaluation. That was not normal in anyone's book. And how did the landlord no know what was happening in his property? Sadly, there are a lot of rental properties in that part of town in sub-standard condition. There is one a few streets over with no heat, yet the City Inspectors have let it go. I bet those property owners and rental management people don't live like this. As much as the tenant is clearly at fault, property owners should be taken to task as well. This place will probably be "cleaned up" and re-rented, when it should be gutted or torn down and the property cleaned.